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H0624................................by JUDICIARY, RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
SCHOOL DISTRICTS - EMPLOYEES - Amends existing law to require school
district employees to obtain criminal history checks within one month of
starting employment; and to require employees that have been in the employ
of a school district for five years or less to obtain criminal history
checks within one month from the date they are notified that they must
obtain criminal history checks.
02/12 House intro - 1st rdg - to printing
02/13 Rpt prt - to Jud
|||| LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO ||||
Fifty-sixth Legislature Second Regular Session - 2002
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
HOUSE BILL NO. 624
BY JUDICIARY, RULES AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE
1 AN ACT
2 RELATING TO CRIMINAL HISTORY CHECKS FOR SCHOOL DISTRICT EMPLOYEES; AMENDING
3 SECTION 33-512, IDAHO CODE, TO REQUIRE SCHOOL DISTRICT EMPLOYEES TO OBTAIN
4 CRIMINAL HISTORY CHECKS WITHIN ONE MONTH OF STARTING EMPLOYMENT AND TO
5 REQUIRE EMPLOYEES THAT HAVE BEEN IN THE EMPLOY OF A SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR
6 FIVE YEARS OR LESS TO OBTAIN CRIMINAL HISTORY CHECKS WITHIN ONE MONTH FROM
7 THE DATE THEY ARE NOTIFIED THAT THEY MUST OBTAIN CRIMINAL HISTORY CHECKS.
8 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Idaho:
9 SECTION 1. That Section 33-512, Idaho Code, be, and the same is hereby
10 amended to read as follows:
11 33-512. GOVERNANCE OF SCHOOLS. The board of trustees of each school dis-
12 trict shall have the following powers and duties:
13 1. To fix the days of the year and the hours of the day when schools
14 shall be in session. However:
15 (a) Each school district shall annually adopt and implement a school cal-
16 endar which provides its students at each grade level with the following
17 minimum number of instructional hours:
18 Grades Hours
19 9-12 990
20 4-8 900
21 1-3 810
22 K 450
23 (b) School assemblies, testing and other instructionally related activi-
24 ties involving students directly may be included in the required instruc-
25 tional hours.
26 (c) When approved by a local school board, annual instructional hour
27 requirements stated in paragraph (a) may be reduced as follows:
28 (i) Up to a total of twenty-two (22) hours to accommodate staff
29 development activities conducted on such days as the local school
30 board deems appropriate.
31 (ii) Up to a total of eleven (11) hours of emergency school closures
32 due to adverse weather conditions and facility failures.
33 However, transportation to and from school, passing times between classes,
34 recess and lunch periods shall not be included.
35 (d) Student and staff activities related to the opening and closing of
36 the school year, grade reporting, program planning, staff meetings, and
37 other classroom and building management activities shall not be counted as
38 instructional time or in the reductions provided in paragraph (c)(i) of
39 this section.
40 (e) For multiple shift programs, this rule applies to each shift (i.e.,
41 each student must have access to the minimum annual required hours of
42 instructions).
43 (f) The instructional time requirement for grade 12 students may be
2
1 reduced by action of a local school board for an amount of time not to
2 exceed eleven (11) hours of instructional time.
3 (g) The state superintendent of public instruction may grant an exemption
4 from the provisions of this section for an individual building within a
5 district, when the closure of that building, for unforeseen circumstances,
6 does not affect the attendance of other buildings within the district.
7 2. To adopt and carry on, and provide for the financing of, a total edu-
8 cational program for the district. Such programs in other than elementary
9 school districts may include education programs for out-of-school youth and
10 adults; and such districts may provide classes in kindergarten;
11 3. To provide, or require pupils to be provided with, suitable textbooks
12 and supplies, and for advice on textbook selections may appoint a textbook
13 adoption committee as provided in section 33-512A, Idaho Code;
14 4. To protect the morals and health of the pupils;
15 5. To exclude from school, children not of school age;
16 6. To prescribe rules for the disciplining of unruly or insubordinate
17 pupils, such rules to be included in a district discipline code adopted by the
18 board of trustees and a summarized version thereof to be provided in writing
19 at the beginning of each school year to the teachers and students in the dis-
20 trict in a manner consistent with the student's age, grade and level of aca-
21 demic achievement;
22 7. To exclude from school, pupils with contagious or infectious diseases
23 who are diagnosed or suspected as having a contagious or infectious disease or
24 those who are not immune and have been exposed to a contagious or infectious
25 disease; and to close school on order of the state board of health or local
26 health authorities;
27 8. To equip and maintain a suitable library or libraries in the school or
28 schools and to exclude therefrom, and from the schools, all books, tracts,
29 papers, and catechisms of sectarian nature;
30 9. To determine school holidays. Any listing of school holidays shall
31 include not less than the following: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Indepen-
32 dence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. Other days listed in section
33 73-108, Idaho Code, if the same shall fall on a school day, shall be observed
34 with appropriate ceremonies; and any days the state board of education may
35 designate, following the proclamation by the governor, shall be school holi-
36 days;
37 10. To erect and maintain on each schoolhouse or school grounds a suitable
38 flagstaff or flagpole, and display thereon the flag of the United States of
39 America on all days, except during inclement weather, when the school is in
40 session; and for each Veterans Day, each school in session shall conduct and
41 observe an appropriate program of at least one (1) class period remembering
42 and honoring American veterans;
43 11. To prohibit entrance to each schoolhouse or school grounds, to pro-
44 hibit loitering in schoolhouses or on school grounds and to provide for the
45 removal from each schoolhouse or school grounds of any individual or individu-
46 als who disrupt the educational processes or whose presence is detrimental to
47 the morals, health, safety, academic learning or discipline of the pupils. A
48 person who disrupts the educational process or whose presence is detrimental
49 to the morals, health, safety, academic learning or discipline of the pupils
50 or who loiters in schoolhouses or on school grounds, is guilty of a misde-
51 meanor.
52 12. To supervise and regulate, including by contract with established
53 entities, those extracurricular activities which are by definition outside of
54 or in addition to the regular academic courses or curriculum of a public
55 school, and which extracurricular activities shall not be considered to be a
3
1 property, liberty or contract right of any student, and such extracurricular
2 activities shall not be deemed a necessary element of a public school educa-
3 tion, but shall be considered to be a privilege.
4 13. To govern the school district in compliance with state law and rules
5 of the state board of education.
6 14. To submit to the superintendent of public instruction not later than
7 July 1 of each year documentation which meets the reporting requirements of
8 the federal gun-free schools act of 1994 as contained within the federal
9 improving America's schools act of 1994.
10 15. To require that all persons hired for the first time by the district
11 or who have been in the employ of the district five (5) years or less, undergo
12 a criminal history check as provided in section 33-130, Idaho Code. All such
13 employees who are required to undergo a criminal history check shall obtain
14 the history check within three one (31) months of starting employment, or for
15 employees with five (5) years or less with the district, within three one
16 (31) months from the date such employee is notified that he must undergo a
17 criminal history check. Such employees shall pay the cost of the criminal his-
18 tory check. If the criminal history check shows that the employee has been
19 convicted of a felony crime enumerated in section 33-1208, Idaho Code, it
20 shall be grounds for immediate termination, dismissal or other personnel
21 action of the district, except that it shall be the right of the school dis-
22 trict to evaluate whether an individual convicted of one (1) of these crimes
23 and having been incarcerated for that crime shall be hired. The district may
24 require any or all persons who have been employed continuously with the same
25 district for more than five (5) years, to undergo a criminal history check as
26 provided in section 33-130, Idaho Code. If the district elects to require
27 criminal history checks of such employees, the district shall pay the costs of
28 the criminal history check or reimburse employees for such cost. A substitute
29 teacher who has undergone a criminal history check at the request of one (1)
30 district in which he has been employed as a substitute shall not be required
31 to undergo an additional criminal history check at the request of any other
32 district in which he is employed as a substitute if the teacher has obtained a
33 criminal history check within the previous three (3) years. If the district
34 next employing the substitute still elects to require another criminal history
35 check within the three (3) year period, that district shall pay the cost of
36 the criminal history check or reimburse the substitute teacher for such cost.
37 16. Each board of trustees of a school district shall be responsible for
38 developing a system for registering volunteers or contractors consistent with
39 maintaining a safe environment for their students.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
RS 11938
This legislation will accelerate the criminal history checks for
school districts, making it possible to avoid the hire of those
employees with criminal records prior to employment.
FISCAL IMPACT
No additional fiscal impact to the General Fund.
Contact
Name: Rep. Debbie Field
Phone: 208-332-1000
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE/FISCAL NOTE H 624